Page One

The St. Mary’s High track & field program should be a contender for state honors this season, for both individual events and team score. So last weekend’s Arcadia Invitational, the first meet to host most of the state’s best teams, could be looked at as a preview of what’s to come for the Panthers.

If that’s so, the St. Mary’s girls appear to be in pretty good shape, finishing in the top five in five different events and seventh in two others. Seniors Kamaiya Warren, Bridget Duffy and Danielle Stokes continued their impressive seasons at Arcadia, with each going head-to-head with a familiar rival. Warren finished second in the shotput and fourth in the discus with solid marks in both events, although she did come in behind rival Rachel Varner of Bakersfield High, who won the shotput and finished second in the discus. Duffy finished fifth in the mile in 4:56, two seconds ahead of Head Royce High’s Clara Horowitz, another episode in the four-year battle between the two runners. Stokes was fourth in the 100-meter intermediate hurdles, .05 of a second behind Talia Stewart of James Logan. The pair have faced off in three straight meets, with wins alternating from week to week and the margin never more than 1/10th of a second.

The Lady Panthers finished second in the distance medley in 12:09, four seconds behind their state-best mark, set at the Stanford Invitational. Their previous mark held up as winner Esperanza High finished in 12:06. The team’s other relay, the 4x100, had another impressive showing, finishing seventh in a strong field.

The lone disappointment on the girls side was that senior Tiffany Johnson. She didn’t compete in her two best events, the 100-meter dash and the long jump, and finished seventh in the triple jump and out of the top 10 in the 200-meter race.

The St. Mary’s boys, on the other hand, had just one impressive performance: senior Solomon Welch won the triple jump with a leap of 48’01.25”. Welch was also ninth in the long jump, and Jason Bolden Anderson finished ninth in the 100-meter hurdles. The boys’ 4x100 relay team came in eighth with one of their stronger performances of the season, but the sprinters were unimpressive individually.